No that's Red the trainer from the original games. Ash is based on Red so I can see the confusion. The games have been around since 1996 in Japan so 17 years. The anime came out in 1997 so 16 in Japan and 15 in North America and most of the rest of the world.

Have you ever played the Pokemon games? The old ones? Hell, even Fire Red version? The character in that is Red instead of Ash. And as for Ash growing up in the anime, he will always be ten because that makes him more appealing to the target age demographic because it is still mostly played by 10-12 year olds.